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bottom, and rummages about till it becomes quite covered with pollen;
but not being able to force its way out again, owing to the downward
position of the hairs, which converge to a point like the wires of a
mouse-trap, and being somewhat impatient of its confinement it brushes
backwards and forwards, trying every corner, till, after repeatedly
traversing the stigma, it covers it with pollen sufficient for its
impregnation, in consequence of which the flower soon begins to droop,
and the hairs to shrink to the sides of the tube, effecting an easy
passage for the escape of the insect."--Rev. P. Keith-System of
Physiological Botany.
(*16) The bees--ever since bees were--have been constructing their
cells with just such sides, in just such number, and at just such
inclinations, as it has been demonstrated (in a problem involving the
profoundest mathematical principles) are the very sides, in the very
number, and at the very angles, which will afford the creatures the most
room that is compatible with the greatest stability of structure.
During the latter part of the last century, the question arose among
mathematicians--"to determine the best form that can be given to the
sails of a windmill, according to their varying distances from the
revolving vanes, and likewise from the centres of the revoloution." This
is an excessively complex problem, for it is, in other words, to find
the best possible position at an infinity of varied distances and at an
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